Routines are Nice

Mom wearing her new coat
She LOVES purple.

I'm grateful to have the holiday behind us so that we can all settle into my mom's new routine; "school" 5 days a week and a daily visit from her Home Care Attendant.

My mom loves the Day Program that she attends, the people there are her friends.  Real people and real friends.  It's enjoyable to talk about real people with her.  It was awhile before I realized that she was telling me about real people and not hallucinations.  Every day she was upset when I picked her up.  It was difficult for her to express herself and my guessing was way off.

Since my mom started to eat lunch with all of her friends, the same lunch that is served to all the participants of the day program, she has been in a better mood.  I pick her up and she's in a good mood.  I especially love it when she turns and waves to all of her friends like she's royalty.  "Let me see my friends.  Goodbye, I'll see you tomorrow!"

Avoiding wheat is a very good idea, not just because it triggers awful behaviors, it also causes my mom to have gastrointestinal explosions that leave a nasty mess for me and or the Care Attendant to clean.  I think the women at my mom's Day Program understand why we avoid wheat; nothing like a lesson learned through experience.

We're into a new routine.  My mom likes Martha, her van driver that picks her up Tuesday through Thursday at 7 AM.  Today is Thursday, I'm counting down the minutes as though it is New Year's Eve and a new year will begin.  Every day that my mom leaves at the crack of dawn beckons feelings of elation, time to myself.  Time to accomplish my long lists of tasks.  I am feeling better about life, it's not so oppressive as long as I feel like I'm moving forward.  Today, I feel like I'm making progress.

For any readers wondering about the pill swallowing issue... we solved the problem.  Our Naturopath Doctor mixed her up a batch of herbal extract liquid that lowers her blood pressure.  She swallows the liquid and takes a teaspoon of raw honey as a chaser.  Our lives are less stressful, she remembers how to drink out of her blue shot glass.

The cognition powder that we got for her can't be heated so I can't hide it in her oatmeal.  My mom's not a fan of fruit smoothies.  My current mission is to figure out how to mix the Brain Powder into something that my mom won't mind eating every day.   The powder doesn't dissolve and is a bit gritty.  Yogurt?  Honey?  Apple Sauce?   I'll let you know what works.

I'm enjoying the routine and every day is getting better and better because of it.

Routines are nice.